Archive for the ‘General Golf Tips’ Category

Three simple steps on how to hit longer tee shots and out drive you’re playing partners

GO WIDER WITH YOUR WITH YOUR STANCE

Normally you would have your feet shoulder width apart for your normal long game set up. I have a great tip for you here for when you want to out drive you’re playing partners. I would like you to take a slightly wider stance than normal, keeping the ball in line with the inside of your left heel just widen your right foot out a few more inches. This will encourage you to tilt your spine away from the target a little more and will drop your head farther behind the ball. This will increase the amount of weight you are feeling on your right foot; this is perfect. This powerful setup position pre-loads your weight shift onto your right side.

DON’T SWING BACK TO QUICK

The amount of golfers who swing the golf club back to fast when they are going for more distance is staggering. What happens when you do this is that your hands out-race your body; they’ll get to the top of your backswing well before you complete your body turn. If this happens, which it does, you will lose so much power and therefore distance. To hit longer tee shots you must make a more deliberate backswing. The feeling that you want is a nice smooth takeaway that allows you to finish your body turn before you start your forward swing.

ACCELERATE ALL THE WAY TO THE FINISH

The start of the forward swing is triggered by a good weight shift into your left side. I am always encouraging my clients to feel that their weight is moving in the same direction as their swing: When you make your backswing your weight and pressure is increasing in your right foot. When you make your forward swing your weight and pressure increases in your left foot. As you shift your weight into your left foot, the club should naturally drop to the inside, this will make it easy for you to attack the ball on the right path creating a powerful drawing ball flight. A good feeling to have is that you’re accelerating the clubhead all the way to the finish. Follow these simple steps for greater distance and you will be out driving you’re playing partners every time.

If you want more easy to understand and informative tips especially on hitting the ball further then “How to crush the ball 20 yards further” is available NOW in the kindle store to download.

How to Grip The Golf Club Correctly

The Grip is very important in the in the set up and golf swing as it is the only direct contact we have with the club. It gives us clubface control as well as leverage in the golf swing otherwise known as ‘lag’ which will help create more power. When placing the left hand onto the golf club make sure you have the grip sat down across the fingers so the fleshy pad sits on top of the grip. Always hold the club down an inch from the top of the handle as well.

Close your hand onto the grip making sure you keep a “short left thumb” as extending your left thumb down the grip will cause the left wrist to lock and can cause injury to the hand or wrist. It will also reduce the power within your swing and will also force the grip up into the palm of the left hand.

Keep the ‘V’ of the left hand pointing up between your collar bone and right shoulder

Avoid gripping it up through the Palm and the Long Left Thumb as this will reduce the flexibility of the wrists in the swing losing you power and distance.

Linking the hands becomes a choice for you. You can either Overlap, interlook, intermesh or baseball (this is suited for juniors of a young age and ladies).

Placing your right hand onto the grip should be performed in the following way. Place the lifeline of your right hand onto the side of your left thumb and then close the right hand over onto the grip.

The inner part of the right forearm should be parallel to the target line and the ‘V’ of the right hand also pointing up in the same direction as the left hand ‘V’.

Keep the grip pressure light as a too tight a grip will rob you of clubhead speed and power.

If you want more easy to understand and informative tips especially on hitting the ball further then “How to crush the ball 20 yards further” is available NOW in the kindle store to download.

HOW DANNY WILLETT DOES IT

This is it, the final tournament of 2015 on the European Tour. Danny Willett is just 1613 points behind current leader Rory McIIroy and a good finish from either player this week will more than likely be crowned European Number 1. They do need a good finish though as there are a handful of players that could do the business if they both missed the cut.

The thing I like about Willett is his ability to work around his limitations given his physical condition. Willett has a long term injury that affects the amount of hip rotation he can produce. The team that surrounds Danny Willett have worked hard to help him develop a technique to work to so that the injury does not affect how he plays and scores around the golf course.

Mark’s 5 Top Tips for Great Golf

Know your iron distances. Just by knowing how far you actually hit each club in the bag can save you up to 5 shots in a round of golf. Make it a priory to know exactly how far each club carries, use launch monitors and range finders as this will quickly and easily identify your yardages for you.

Love your wedges. Carry 3 wedges in your golf bag, an example of lofts might be 47 degree, 53 degree and 58 degrees. This will give you more variety on playing your short game shots. Learn 3 distances with each wedge for pitching. Hip to Hip, Chest to Chest and full swing as this will really sharpen up the pitching game. Have different lofts also helps in the bunkers and a lot of the time you can you your 58 for short greenside bunker shots and your 53 degree for longer greenside bunker shots.

Get your driver fitted. Most of the time golfers will just buy the driver from off the pro shop shelf. This will cost you distance as you will most likely end up with the wrong shaft and loft combination. Spend some time with a PGA Professional and get them to fit you on a launch monitor. This way you will get a driver fitted and suited to you and your golf swing helping you maximise your distance and accuracy.

Good Rhythm is Key. “My swing just does not feel good”. This is a lot of comments I sometimes get from very good golfers. Quite often they have just lost the rhythm of their golf swing. The recipe for finding that silky rhythm is to hit lots of short irons making half swings, then three-quarter length swings and really slowing things down. It is amazing how the swing mechanics then take care of themselves and all of a sudden they comfortable again. The best quick tip in golf is to focus on your rhythm and balance.

Think before Teeing Off. One key strategy in playing any golf hole is to focus on where you would like to be playing the next shot from. If that means on a tight treeline par 4 that a hybrid off the tee would work better than trying to steer a driver up the fairway then play the hybrid. If your second shot is a tough one over water and you are not sure if you can carry it then lay up to a distance that you like for your third shot into the green. The key here is to play within you and have a strategy (game plan) in playing each and every hole. It is what the Pro’s do!!

Golf Lessons Sussex Key Tip – Down and Through

Hit Down ad Through

A lot of golfers who sometimes struggle with good ball striking fall into this category, they merely hit at the ball and not through it. Remember the impact area is a place where the clubhead is travelling through at full velocity. Try not to end your swing abruptly after the ball is struck as this will lead to big inconsistency in the quality of your strike. The main trends in ball striking when a golfer hits at the ball rather than through the ball could result in heavy struck shots or hitting thin shots that fly just flat and low. Lack of distance will also be an issue here as the weight is not transferring through fully and the ball is not hit out of the sweet spot of the club.

To fix this problem try and get the feeling that you are freely swinging the clubhead down the target line and turn on through to a nice full balanced finish. Hold the finish at the end of your swing and check that you have completed the swing, weight fully on the left side, up on the toe of the right foot (for right handed golfers) and the hips and chest turned fully and facing the target.

When you watch some of the best golfers in the world you will notice how they fully commit in hitting through the ball and they finish in a world class finish position, choose your favorite golfer and emulate there finish position.

Mark Wood Golf Academy is based at Dale Hill and provides the best lessons in sussex.

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at

Getting back to the fairway should be your priority

If you are in the thick deep rough think about just advancing your ball down the fairwary. Choose a club with decent loft, pitching wedge or 9 iron would be great, and set up with the face pointing slightly right of your target. The reason for doing this is there is a strong tendency for the face of the club to close when grass wraps around the hosel at impact. Also gripping the club a little tighter with your left hand will reduce the amount of clubhead twist.

Pick the club up steeply in the backswing, and swing down with your wrists staying firm—no scooping to try to help dig the ball out. These adjustments will help you power through the thick grass.

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at

Distance Control with your Irons

One thing that Professionals and very good established amateurs do very well is the ability to control the distances that they hit their irons. They know to the exact yardage that they hit each club as this is what hitting greens in regulation is all about.

As an example it is no good hitting a 6 iron 153 yards and then the next one 174 yards as this will lead to confusion and inconsistency in hitting greens.

As a rule their is a 10 yard gap in between each iron.

Here is a video tip with Mark on distance control –

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at

“How Far Should I Stand From the Ball”

I get asked this question a lot and there is a real simple guide to this, I am going to show you my 3 favourite ways in dealing with this problem.

But first you need to bear in mind that your body shape and degree of flexibility will have an impact on this. As an example, if you are tall and thin you can stand quite upright. If you have a big chest and belly you need to stand further away from the ball with more forward tilt from the hips as this will give you room to swing your arms past your body.

Here’s one tip to help you determine the correct distance from the ball:

Let your arms hang vertically down until your club head touches the ground.

Flex your knees just a little, just like your normal athletic posture.

Here’s two more ways to help you determine how far to stand from the ball.

Take your normal posture and set up position then take your right hand off the club. Now span out the four fingers of your right hand and that should fill the gap between your left thigh and the top of the grip.

Another way is to take your normal posture and set up position then take your right hand off the club and let your arm/hand hang down naturally. From there you should be able to swing it back across so it fits back onto the grip from where it came off.

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at

Hit Your Irons with more Consistency

It amazes me how many golfers don’t know how far they hit there clubs, when asked they normally respond “7 iron 150 yards”
This leads to inconsistency when hitting shots into the greens – mainly coming up short!!

I have put together a cracking video tip on how to control your distances with your irons.

It only takes a minute to watch so please watch it and leave me your comments below.

From Your Friends at Mark Wood Golf Academy

PS. Come down and tee it up to make some magic moments of your own. Check our website at